Force immune door knob/latch structures are known in the prior art. As illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 1,516,152 to Dumont such structures have presented slip clutches wherein clutch projections have been oriented in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the door knob spindle or shaft. In doing so, such structures, as is further illustrated by Dumont, have been positioned within the hand-held portions of the knob.
Other attempts to provide such structures are illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,201 to Roos. In Roos '201 a force immune knob is presented which provides protection against excess torque by providing a door knob having a two-piece face plate having a rotative slip fit therebetween.
Finally, other attempts to provide force immune door knobs, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,502 to Best et al. have relied upon the inclusion of frangible elements which would "break away" in the event that a predetermined level of excessive torque is applied to the knob.
Accordingly, there remains a need to provide a force immune door knob which provides protection against the application of excessive torque by providing resiliently-biased ratcheting means which is positioned between the lock cylinder and the knob sleeve of a door latch wherein the biasing action is oriented in a direction substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the shaft of the door knob.